Swistzerland

We recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Albert Einstein. He recommended the construction of the atomic bomb to President Roosevelt, yet always described himself as a militant pacifist. He shared his qualms of conscience with Sigmund Freud. In the course of their correspondence, the two men agreed in particular that, if all peoples were to live in peace on this planet, the world needed an international organization with which all people could identify. Empathy towards that organization could provide it with the authority to counter war. It was in that conviction and with the same emotion that the men and women of my country voted in favour of Switzerland’s accession to the United Nations almost five years ago. Today, I affirm that we are glad to have taken that step. Switzerland may not have experienced war within its own borders for a number of centuries, but that is not enough to satisfy us, for war is not only there where bombs fall, killing men, women and children. We are all involved in the conflicts that ravage our planet. So long as these wars continue, no one can talk convincingly of peace. We can overcome that feeling of powerlessness in the face of armed conflict by joining together to work towards peace. The country that I have the honour to represent is convinced that the United Nations is the most important means of pursuing that vision. The United Nations embodies our hopes for peace, solidarity and justice throughout the world. Only through a common alliance of all nations do we have that opportunity. No country is capable of meeting the challenges of globalization alone. War, terrorism, drug trafficking, the offshoring of jobs and environmental and climate-related disasters are all global threats. They know no borders, not even those of powerful nations. No State, not even the strongest, is the master of its own fate. Only through an inclusive network with universally applicable norms can might and violence be replaced by justice. The United Nations has been the world’s most successful effort to achieve that end. Every nation and every community is guided by its own historical and cultural experiences in dealing with conflicts. Nations behave and organize themselves accordingly. In Switzerland, our values are based on the three pillars of democracy, the rule of law and social equilibrium. That influences our view of how the international community could address conflicts worldwide by helping the victims of violence or disaster, establishing a legal system and enforcing it, and examining the deeper causes of violence and seeking to redress them. The first reaction of a human being towards a suffering victim is to help that person. The United Nations has stood by victims of natural disasters with humanitarian assistance, be it after a tsunami or in a drought. It also assists people affected by war. In so doing, it has succeeded in building up positive empathy and in strengthening trust in it worldwide. Should the United Nations fail in its humanitarian task, however, desperation and the tendency towards violence increase and intensify conflicts. That can be seen with brutal clarity in the Middle East and in Darfur. Why should the international community not establish norms just like a State does? I refer here to the Millennium Development Goals, human rights, the climate change Protocol and international law. States have adopted penal codes to prosecute criminals, bring them before a court, sentence them and have their sentence enforced. Doing justice to victims prevents acts of vengeance and a never-ending spiral of further violence. It also serves as a deterrent to potential criminals. What is good for a State should also be good for the international community. It must treat war criminals according to the same rules. The international community has to fight terrorism. There is no alternative to absolute respect for the rule of law, human rights and international law. The Geneva Conventions are no hindrance to that; on the contrary, if the appropriate instruments are lacking, new ones can be created, such as the convention on terrorism. Above all, however, we must not betray our principles and our values. Torture or any other illegal procedure has no place in our struggle and represents the radical negation of the rule of law. Recourse to such means strips the fight against terrorism of all its legitimacy. 06-52737 14 The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was a key date in the history of humanity. It is in this Court that war criminals are tried, found guilty and sentenced. Unfortunately, the process can sometimes take a long time, as we have seen in the case of Liberia, and sometimes it can take far too much time, as in the case of the Balkans. War criminals must be extradited so that justice can be done. All war criminals, including those from the Darfur conflict, must be made aware of the consequences of their crimes and know that they will not go unpunished. Respect for the law implies that all States, from the smallest to the largest, become parties to the ICC Statute. Public international law, while it is of fundamental importance for small countries which are unable to defend themselves on their own, also serves the interests of large States, and even super-Powers, if they do not want to find themselves accused of arbitrary acts of imperialism. We all know that no State can function purely on the basis of laws and ordinances. Laws and ordinances must have the full support of the public. The same is true for the United Nations. That is why the Human Rights Council in Geneva will search for solutions through dialogue partnerships rather than by issuing threats. That will take time, a great deal of time. The existence of the Peacebuilding Commission at the United Nations clearly shows that the United Nations peacekeepers cannot bring about or enforce peace by themselves. There need to be blueprints for peace and expert evaluations, together with a long-term “variable- geometry” commitment on the part of the international community, in order to prevent conflicts. Critics who believed that the United Nations was incapable of reform now have before them proof to the contrary. By establishing a Human Rights Council and a Peacebuilding Commission, the United Nations has demonstrated that it wanted to give new life to values such as the protection of human rights and that it could develop new peacekeeping instruments. Just as a democracy strives to involve all its citizens in political decisions, regardless of their background or financial standing, the United Nations must not allow small groups of States or individual States to impose their law on others. A broad consensus must prevail. That is why we would like to see the reform and enlargement of the Security Council, which would undoubtedly strengthen its legitimacy. Given that we have still a long way to go before that point is reached, let us, rather, remain pragmatic and content ourselves with short-term improvements to the Council’s working methods, in particular, the right of veto. Every State will try to find the underlying causes of threats to its cohesion and endeavour to overcome them, and so it is with a community of States. Environmental disasters give rise to mass migration and legions of refugees. The signatories of the Kyoto Protocol want to cut off this evil at the root. But, here again, all States, without exception, must set for themselves the same goals as were set at Kyoto and, above all, take appropriate measures. Every military conflict and every terrorist attack stems from economic inequalities and social injustices. That is why we must do our utmost to fight poverty, lack of future prospects and political impotence. Religious conflicts are also born of economic and social inequalities. In reality, the East-West divide is perhaps more a North-South divide. If we want to promote religious tolerance, we must pay the price, which is greater social and economic justice. By adopting the Millennium Development Goals, the world has set itself the task of reducing extreme poverty by half by 2015. Let us give ourselves and the United Nations the means for keeping that promise. It is through dialogue that it is possible to address the conflict in the Middle East, the stabilization of Iraq and the nuclear crisis with Iran, and all the parties concerned should do everything they can to avoid fanning the flames of discord. Respect for the basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations is just as essential. In other words, no State is entitled to deny the right of another to exist. Lastly, we cannot disappoint those who aspire to self-determination if they have the law on their side. When there is a clash of cultures, the response must be dialogue between cultures and between religions. We have no other choice. Humiliation and lack of respect for other cultures undoubtedly serve as breeding grounds for terrorism. Since all States are represented here, the United Nations is a forum unlike any other. We are looking forward to the issuance of the report on the alliance of civilizations by the High- level Group appointed by the Secretary-General. Switzerland will be very active in this endeavour. 15 06-52737 Switzerland is a neutral country. Our neutrality has never authorized us to look upon the world with indifference or to stand on the sidelines. It has always meant that we have the obligation to work to establish peace. We have never wanted to be, and have never been, neutral towards victims of oppression and violence or the rules of the international community and of international law. The only legitimate ally of a neutral country is public international law. Neutrality means refusing all forms of hegemony and championing the peaceful coexistence of all countries, which all enjoy equal rights. That is how Switzerland understands neutrality and how it intends to exercise it here. As I said at the outset, Albert Einstein concluded that the empathy that people would come to feel for community institutions could become the means to prevent war. But how is such empathy brought about? It develops thanks to people who, in word and deed, commit themselves in these institutions and thereby generate optimism about justice and peace. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is one of these people. He has given the United Nations the face it has today, thank to his commitment in all areas of United Nations activity, sometimes in the most delicate of situations. We are greatly indebted to him, and we ask him to accept our very sincere thanks. Switzerland is particularly grateful for his personal involvement in support of our country’s joining the United Nations. And yes, I confirm once again today, we are glad that we took that step.